More voltage tests ... this time at the connectors at the transformer panel.

A12P3
P1 64 instead of 95
P9 30 instead of 95 return
P4 18 instead of 12.6
P12 7.8 instead of 12.6
P10 67 instead of 58
15 on pins where there should be 12
22 on pins where there should be 20

A12P2
P2 4.4 instead of 6
P4 70 instead of 48

A12P1
58.6 on pins that should be 48
4.5 on pins that should be 6
11 on pins that should be 16
24 on pin that should 50
28 on pin that should be 50 return

I'm wondering if this is a bad ground issue (i.e. fix the grounds at the transformer per pinrepair.com). I forgot to mention that when I first inspected the inside of the cab, I found the green ground disconnected at the power box, and loose at the transformer.

Or bad resistors?

I checked the Bridges again. They are all giving me the 4.3-4.6 readings.

My DMD showed a little life when I reconnected the connectors: about half the columns lit up.

Just posting a pic of my battery, which when I see it blown up on my computer screen looks worse than I thought. Need to test it properly. Note Pin2 on U6 looks like it may have a cold joint, or corrosion.

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Replaced battery with cr2032 holder and battery and now attract mode and tourney play without sound and DMD. U6 appears good. Super excited to see it coming to life.

Going with ground fix next.

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Did the grounding mod mentioned on Pinwiki and pinrepair ... sort of. I haven't soldered it yet. I wanted to see if it would have an impact on the game. (Not that I can see.) Also, I used the basic yellow eye connectors from a HF kit I had, not the smaller eye ones recommended by John R. I'm looking for the small eye versions, but wanted to get the ground more stable before I start working on boards.

Also, I attached the connectors to the L brackets that held the grounding board. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but not sure if it's an issue?

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Stop it, Scotty. You're getting me all confused. I wish you were closer, only like 13 hours away.

Sound on.
DMD on.
Game on.

What an amazing day. I went to the Winston Salem auction and came home with one DMD that was part of a larger box, but the winning bidder was nice enough to sell me one from a stack of DMDs in there to use as a tester. Read on. Thank you whomever you are.

1. I re-did the grounding mod, by screwing the new connectors directly to the transformer chassis.
2. Installed new ribbon cable between sound boards. Sound works. Also replaced driver/CPU ribbon. Not sure if it had an effect, but don't care at this point.
3. Pulled and reseated U8G. It had no affect on the DMD so I connected the DMD I picked up today. And. It. Worked. The last line is a little dim, but a pittance compared to staring at a dead DMD.

So here's the fun part...
I played it a little to test. Then invited my 17 year old to try it. We both actually like the game. Maybe it'll wear off. But my son quickly said "you're not getting rid of this, it's awesome."

Now the playfield take down and cleaning begins. And a couple of small fixes.

Force, thanks for staying with me on this. I'm ready for this to move to "restorations documented."

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Car crusher action was dead. A little manual linkage movement, DMM tests, and reseated the opto connections (just because I'm reseating everything I can) on the bottom of the lower PF. And it started working. Not a learning experience, but I'll take it. Two hits and a winner. Probably will do TNT's smaller ball suggestion.

The teardown has begun. Looks like a cleaning will be much overdue for the lowest levels in back. It's a shame the Mylar doesn't go all the way back, found some PF wear. Not sure if I'll touch up.

Does anyone know where you can get replacement foam pads for ramps (see pic) and metal VUK deflectors?

Also, any danger in powering up once the playfield is cleared? Lots of lights to verify before rebuilding the PF. (Back left strobe didn't work with bulb replacement, so I need to check that out)

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I was thinking about LEDs for this, but didn't want to put more money into than necessary. But you make a great point about accessibility when you consider lamp life.

This leads to a question I've had for a while: what type of LED is recommended. I'd love to see a side by side photo demo of what different styles of LED bulbs look like under a playfield plastic, under a dome, behind backglass, etc. Warm white, cool white.

I'm definitely going with the GI LEDs, cool white. I've enjoyed reading the advice and opinions. Thanks. I thought about using blue bulbs on the light bar under the back box, on either side of the center flasher. They're barely visible anyway. Thought it would be nice color glow.

I used some incandescent 44 blues in the top lanes on my Flash (the covers were white; I've seen blue covers on other Flashes) and really liked the effect, and dropped reds in the pop bumpers. But didn't like the look under the playfield plastics.

I've already bought the rubber set from PBR and will just go with those.

EDIT: Got caught up in Black Friday and placed LEDs order with Comet. Stay tuned ...

Thanks, Todd. May try that first. When I'm done, you will see some familiar upgrades and lighting ideas.

Starting to think about the cabinet. Is it crazy to handle the cabinet much like a playfield? Frisket around the logo, redo the blue with a spray gun, frisket other areas of the artwork, etc.

Also, does an airbrush give even results for larger areas? I've never had one and wondering if it'd work on a cab, or do I need a larger coverage spray from an air pistol grip style air gun.

Lastly, cab paint recommendations? acrylic enamel, oil, etc. I've read a lot but threads go back several years. Current thinking?

Anyone with a SF2: I was cleaning yellow posts and found that two of the posts are the taller 1 3/16" ... and I didn't pay attention to where they came from. There are 4 holding the slingshot plastics on either side. But there are two more that came from somewhere. Can someone tell me where they go?

All my pics are overhead so the height is not clear. Note to self: take side views along with overhead

(Edited from original after studying my pics and baggies of parts...)

Cleaning all the parts and started to question whether these are supposed to be used on SF2. I'm reading where its an EM post. Found one on the layered plastics, where one of three was this and shorter than the others, so the plastic was bent down.

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I dunked the stargate ramps in Evaporust overnight and the blue metal ramps came up nice and silver. Wondering if anyone has tried using gun bluing on parts before. Found a Birchwood Casey sharpie-like pen that blues, then I would coat with clearcoat. Not prepared for redoing all the rivets. Maybe just leave the silver alone?

Well, I found a pic showing the white posts, shown on the left and right of the stargate ramp, which was good to see.

I've dropped the car crusher PF and found the springs quite stretched. But generally in good shape. The parts cleaning is nearly complete. I've become a big Evaporust fan. I think I'm going to pull the side rails and lockdown bar/mech and give them a bath. Also looking for a match on the cab blue.

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the PF rebuild came to halt when I found that several of the flashers didn't work. I did some MOSFET testing and found a bad one at Q22, and oddly, one missing at Q15. The Q22 had a bad solder job, too much solder and lots of yellow flux staining (?). As I desoldered Q22 I found that the traces came up with the solder (I'm not sure if that was me or the previous work.)

So, what now? Is there a fix, and if so, whats the current thinking?

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I was using a simple spring loaded sucker. So jumpering is the best way to go. It looks like I will only need to jumper one of them if I can solder the other two efficiently. The 2 bad traces on the component side are the 2 good traces on the other side. From what I can tell quickly, I need to jumper the MOSFET source to the adjacent cap C33. I'll need to double check the schematic.

I had my soldering station set to 350C. I'll lower to 320C next go round.

This is some of the older solder work I'm dealing with...

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Based on the schematics and visually, I definitely need to do jumper 1, jumpers 2 and 3 are uncertain until I can get a loupe on them. Will someone be so kind as to compare my sketch (based on the photos) and the schematic, and see if I got the jumpers right? Sketch is based on non-component side but I would put the jumpers on the component side.

Thanks.

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I jumpered only J1 on my sketch, then replaced two other FETs and bingo, all flashers are working. Now back to the PF and cab: new flipper bushings, rods and bats; evaporust legs, lockdown and side rails, and rebuild the PF. Funny to think this started as VP cab and now that all the electrical stuff is working, I'm starting to like this SF2.

So i finished cleaning the PF and soaking a lot of stuff in Evaporust. I used polishing wheels on my drill with black and white compound to clean up the side rails.

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I spent the day rebuilding the playfield. Learned a lot about how to document the process. Basically, its working. I think I have one smart switch not working. And I'm going to wait for warmer weather to work on the cabinet, but I plan to frisket the logo, fill dents in the blue areas, and repaint all the blue.

I'm not sure I have the LEDs exactly the way I want them. I did some things I saw others do, like blue under the ramps. But I learned a lot about how I like LEDs, and more important, what I don't like. I accidentally ordered clear domes for the PF and meant to order frosted... so I sanded the domes to diffuse the light.

I also did a lot of the upgrades that Todd T. talks about in his entertaining videos: stargates upgraded to correct coils, smaller car crusher ball, and the blue/red LEDs in the lightstrip to accentuate the red ramps.

More pics later. Here's where I'm at ...

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A little of it in action ... the flashers are more intense on the video than real life.

Just played a couple of games, and I'm not done yet. Did the solenoid & relay test - the ramp coils (7&8) and car crush reset (13) aren't working. So more work to do...

The ramp coils had a blown fuse. Fortunately local true value carries the 1 amp SB I needed. So those are "up" and working. Car crush needs opto work for reset, and need to see about redirecting back center kicker direction so ball doesn't hit a rail and go back into the hole.

I got the ball from PBR. I bought a 7/8" which still wins after two hits. The springs are stretched and don't provide much resistance. So need to replace. May try EOS adjustment first.